Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart Read Free Book Online Page B

eye contact while he went to the sink and filled his water bottle. “Rock on.”
    Gideon looked blank. “Have we met?” he asked Hutch.
    “This is John Hutchinson,” I said apologetically.
    Hutch hopped up on the counter and swigged his water, still without making eye contact.
    Gideon held out his hand. “Good to meet you.”
    “We’ve met,” said Hutch, shaking it.
    “I have a bad memory for faces.”
    “We went to school together for ten years.”
    “Oh, yeah,” said Gideon, obviously lying. “Out of context. Sorry.”
    This is why Hutch is such a roly-poly. He has zero sense of what a warped little bunny he sounds like sometimes.
    Yes, they had been at school together. But Gideon had graduated when we were freshmen, and seniors can’t be expected to recall every dorkface underclassman from three years ago. But there went Hutch, saying Gideon’s whole name like a semi-stalker, and then telling him to “Rock on,” not even saying hello like a normal person. And then what kind of conversationalist quick-calculates the number of years their Tate Prep careers overlapped and uses it to guilt the other person for not remembering?
    “Did you finish getting the greenhouse set up?” I asked Hutch, to change the subject. “And is Dad presentable?”
    “His face is dry, at least. And yeah. It looks pretty good in there.”

    “Gideon’s boat ran out of gas,” I explained.
    “Almost,” said Gideon.
    We all stood around the kitchen for a moment. Not saying anything. Then Hutch said, “Nice lip gloss, Ruby,” jumped off the counter and went back outside.
    What?
    Why was he commenting on my lip gloss?
    Since when did Hutch notice my lips anyway?
    “Was that your boyfriend?” asked Gideon, plopping himself on our couch and stroking Polka’s ears.
    “No,” I said, sitting down on the rocking chair.
    “Why?”
    “He seemed a little tense is all.”
    “He’s—he’s a friend of my boyfriend’s,” I explained.
    “He’s just being protective.”
    Realizing: Oh. That’s what “Nice lip gloss” meant.
    It meant, “Ruby, you’re going out with Noel, remember?”
    “So you have a boyfriend?” Gideon asked. He leaned forward and touched the hem of my sundress with the tips of his fingers.
    “I—I think I do,” I answered.
    I have a boyfriend who doesn’t call me back, I thought.
    I have a boyfriend who doesn’t answer my e-mails.
    “You think, or you know?” asked Gideon, looking up at me.
    “I don’t exactly know right now,” I said. “The thing—
    it’s hard to explain. The thing we have is somehow not the thing it was before.”
    At that juncture, a shout of “Gas!” could be heard from the deck. The guys had come back and were going to refil the boat.
    “You should call me,” Gideon said, standing up to leave. “When you know for sure.”
    “For sure, what?”
    “For sure you don’t have a boyfriend.”

    “What if I do?” I asked. “I mean, I am pretty sure I do.”
    “Then don’t call me.” He was standing in our doorway, silhouetted in the light. “But call me.”

    Humiliation at Snappy Dragon!
    a video clip:
    Meghan sits in the window seat of her bedroom.
    The Tiffany blue wall behind her is decorated with photographs and mementos. Her silky curls are up on top of her head and she’s wearing one of Finn’s soccer T-shirts.
    Ruby: (behind the camera) What’s your definition of love?
    Meghan: I didn’t know you were going to ask hard questions .
    Roo: This is a serious documentary .
    Meghan: (twisting her hair with her fingers) Okay. Love is … Um. Love is this feeling.
    It’s a big feeling. It’s like listening to music, you know, like a ballad or even religious music—because it fills you up and you can’t think about anything but the other person and it all seems like a dream. Finn took me out in a canoe the other day, and we had a picnic and watched the sunset.
    That’s like love in action .
    Roo: Isn’t that love in the movies?
    Meghan: What do you